Long before Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars namechecked her in a certain 2014 hit, Michelle Pfeiffer was established as a cultural heavyweight. Breaking through in the 1980s, Pfeiffer starred in a host of classics such as Scarface, The Witches of Eastwick and Dangerous Liaisons. By the end of the decade, she was one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, with studios and directors acutely aware of her name’s power to make a title a hit.
Pfeiffer built on the stellar reputation she had cultivated during the ’80s by continuing to find success into the 1990s. Perhaps her most memorable role came as Catwoman in Tim Burton’s 1992 outing Batman Returns, which has yet to be topped. Even 30 years later, it beats Anne Hathaway’s and Zoë Kravitz’s subsequent iterations. It stays true to the subject material whilst Pfeiffer instils the character with something she does with all her characters – an ice-cool authenticity.
1992 was a fruitful time for the American actor. That year she earned her third Academy Award nomination for the JFK assassination drama Love Field, where she starred opposite Dennis Haysbert. The following year, she gained plaudits for her role in Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence before starring in Wolf and Dangerous Minds in 1994 and 1995, respectively. Both titles only served to crystallise her standing.
Although she might not be as busy as she once was, Pfeiffer’s name still commands respect, and she has maintained quality throughout her career. 2007 saw her have a resurgence of sorts as the primary antagonist in the musical Hairspray and Neil Gaiman adaptation, Stardust, with both immensely successful. Since then, she’s worked on a range of other successes, including Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! and 2020’s French Exit. For the latter, she recieved a Golden Globe nomination.
Despite experiencing much success, this has not stopped Pfeiffer from harbouring regrets about certain moments in her career. In fact, the film she regrets the most is 1982’s Grease 2, a slightly ironic point as it was her first leading role. The sequel to 1978’s Grease, the film was a complete disaster commercially and critically and is considered one of the worst follow-ups of all time.
Pfeiffer made her contempt for the film clear when speaking to Hollywood.com, telling them that she “hated that film with a vengeance and could not believe how bad it was”. She then explained that her decision to star in it was down to one thing, youthful naivety: “I was young and didn’t know any better.”
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